Linux Installation

As of 2014-02-17 the following problems exist with the W540 under Linux:

Using openSUSE 13.1 64bit everything works correctly so far except the discrete video card. I am unable to use nvidia K1100M with NVIDIA drivers. There is no option in the bios to select only the NVidia chip to run the video. Currently the opensource driver performance is poor and does not support power management. I was able to install the bumblebee code, but with it in place the external monitor ports on the doc or the side (VGA/Thunderbolt) to longer work. Using the opensource driver, there are many display issues, but basic things (youtube, MATE, gnome, KDE) all work without issue. It is able to drive two external monitors and the internal display using the two side ports. The side monitor ports also work correctly, including audio though the thunderbolt port via an HDMI adapter to a TV.

I have re-installed about 6 times and am still unable to find a combination that allows me to correctly using the closed source drivers. Either as dedicated only NVidia, or using bumblebee.

Resources

• Lenovo Japan : W540 product specification sheet
• ThinkPad-Wiki : W540